


After All This Time

by Avalon_Pendragon



Category: Fallout 4, Fallout Far Harbor, Fallout Nuka World
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Bad decisions are made, Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Drug Use, F/M, Female Sole Survivor - Freeform, Friends to Lovers, Good decisions are also made, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Multi, Multiple Partners, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Romantic Soulmates, Slow Burn, Sole Survivor is a badass, Sole has PTSD, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Tattood sole survivor, who wouldnt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:21:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27623317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Avalon_Pendragon/pseuds/Avalon_Pendragon
Summary: Her life before the bombs and all the carnage that followed had been a dream. The kind of dream a young girl wanted. She had her soulmate and she had her career. But it sometimes didn't feel like enough.Crawling out of the vault had been difficult. She had to see it as a mission, if it's a mission she could be all business. She could put on her game face and destroy the man that kidnapped her son. Now? Her mission is getting more complicated; as she looks for her missing son she also has to learn to connect with a soulmate that she wasn't expecting.And it definitely wasn't part of her mission to fall in love with him either.
Relationships: John Hancock/Female Sole Survivor, Porter Gage/Female Sole Survivor
Comments: 6
Kudos: 11





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aaliyah and her soulmate Nate have just survived the apocalypse and are welcomed into Vault 111

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I deleted my old work [A Millenia Later] and this is the rewrite of it. I really hope people enjoy the story, I'm writing it as a way to recover after a brain injury so constructive criticism, as long as its kind, is greatly appreciative. I hope everyone enjoys!

Aaliyah looked at her husband and child somberly from her place on the platform. It descended at a rapid rate deep into the earth as the dust cloud roared above them. Nate was trying to tell her something, but the sound was drowned out amongst the cries of anguish and the world ending above. 

”This is our new home...” 

She nodded while she moved past her neighbors to clutch Nate’s side, to touch their child. She wasn't sure what to do with herself. Her bond with Nate was amplifying her, their, grief on the situation at hand but she could disconnect herself just enough to not get lost in it. 

”No need to worry folks! We’ll get everything situated in your new home. Vault 111! A better future, underground!” 

Aaliyah held onto Nate’s arm as they followed the group up the stairs, she was trying to ignore her neighbors; they hadn't really liked her, and she hadn't really liked them. They liked Nate, he was a sweet all American boy. She was a tattooed Latina that rode a motorcycle. 

”Vault Tec is here for you. All new residents please proceed in an orderly fashion. Welcome home!” 

The computer's voice sounded weird, but she supposed she would have to get used to those kinds of sounds. She would probably spend the rest of her life here. 

They all walked across the metal bridge, up the table as directed, and each was handed a sealed vault suit, the gold 111 glimmering on the front of the packages. Nate took his and looked at her expectably from the hallway heading deeper into the vault. Aaliyah followed him, him and the vault doctor who was going on about how advanced the vault was and how nice it was going to be living here as they walked deeper into the vault. 

As they walked they passed some of their neighbors, they were crying near the large window that looked upon the reactors. She understood what they were feeling, but Nate was steeling himself and she was feeding off of that confidence to keep herself moving. To keep herself from thinking of her family. No she just simply couldn't afford too. 

”How long do you think we’ll be down here?” 

The doctor didn't even look at Nate as he answered. 

”Oh, we’ll be going over all that during orientation. Just a few medical items we have to get through first.” 

Aaliyah thought that made sense. They had probably been exposed to radiation or something when they were brought down. The dust cloud had been directly overhead. 

They walked down the row of strange pods until they got to the very back. From there they were instructed to change into their vault suits. The men turned away as the woman changed. She got looks from the other woman on the tattoos she had. She was rather proud of them, two full sleeves and a partial cover of her back. She had one between her breasts too. When they noticed that one they gave her an angry blush. 

With everyone situated Nate came back over to her, Shaun fussing in his arms. 

”It’ll be okay, Mommy’s right here see? Hon can you help me with Shaun?” 

Aaliyah smiled and nuzzled into Shauns head, his baby hairs tickling her cheeks. Kissing him lightly she looked at Nate and smiled lightly. If these two were here with her she supposed it wouldn't be that bad. She could make it. 

Stepping up to her pod she climbed in, it felt colder inside the pod than outside but she supposed it was all of the metal. 

”The pod will decontaminate and decompress you before we head deeper in the Vault. Just relax.” 

Slumping back Aaliyah did just that, her shoulders had been so tense. It felt good to let it go, even for a moment. Time for a whole new life... 

”Resident secure.” 

”Occupants vitals. Normal.” 

”Procedure complete in 5...4...3...2...1…” 

As she lay in the pod her breathing slowed, and a chill came over her. It made her realize how tired she had been. It wouldn't hurt to close her eyes for a moment. 

______________________________________________________________________ 

”Manual override initiated. Cryogenic stasis suspended.” 

Blinking slowly Aaliyah looked out as the world slowly came into focus again. Looking around the pod she noticed a layer of frost. Why was there frost on the inside of her pod? 

This is the one. Here.” 

It was a woman's voice. The vault doctor wasn't a woman. What was going on? 

A strange figure appeared from the right side of her pod, wearing leather from head to toe, carrying a gun. Aaliyah felt every alarm go off in her body as the hairs on her body bristled. They were opening Nates pod, and she didn't think they were from the vault. 

”Is it over, are we okay?” 

He coughed as he said it, but otherwise seemed okay. Aaliyah’s body was sluggish, it felt like she hadn't moved in years, but her mind felt sharper than her body. Pushing against their bond all she could get across was feelings, her feelings of alarm, like something isn't right. She saw him tense across from her, he got her message. 

She drowned out the people, they were talking but she was just focusing on Nate, he was trying to keep their son away from the woman, she was reaching like she wanted him, but Nate wasn't going to give him up. 

Then. Then the man stepped forward and raised his gun. 

”Let the boy go. I’m only gonna tell you once!” 

Every atom in her body was telling her to do something. She was the fighter, she was the soldier, she had to get out! Forcing her body to move she began to bang on the glass with her fists, but it didn't seem like enough. She was more than fueled by the adrenaline that both her and Nate were feeling, so she pulled back and instead began kicking at the glass. Her muscles burned and her vision swam before she felt a searing pain in her head accompanied by a gunshot. 

Falling back against the chair in her pod Aaliyah watched as Nate slumped back, no longer fighting to get their child away from these strangers. 

She felt like she had been shot in the head. In a way she thought she had been. She watched as the kidnappers spirited away her child. It was hard to breath, it was hard to think. Her bond with Nate had snapped. Snapped like a rubber band stretched to its absolute limit before coming back and hitting one of the parties holding it. 

The motherfucker who just shot her husband leaned in close to the glass of her pod. His warm breath coming out in clouds against it. Looking at her with his hideous face. She wanted to kill him. To tear him apart with her bare hands. 

”At Least we still have the backup.” 

She only had a moment to let out a wail before the ice descended back onto her. 

”Cryogenics sequence reinitialized.” 

Her world faded back to black as the ice made her limp against the back of her chair. Her only view of her husbands, her soulmate's dead body laying in an awkward looking position in his own pod. 

The feeling of nothingness couldn't come soon enough.


	2. Chapter 2.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hancock thinks about his history with his soul link.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again I hope you enjoy the chapter! [kind] Constructive criticism always welcome. :)

When Hancock was a kid he could feel his soul link. At first when he was younger he thought that he was blessed, he felt comfort in the fact that he could reach into the link at all at his age. Others had to wait till puberty until they could reach their link like this. But as he aged he realized it was more like a curse. 

His parents were concerned that he could reach out like he did when he was only 10. They took him to a doctor, desperate to understand why one son could reach out but the other couldn't. The strength at which you could reach through the bond was genetic after all. Children born from soulmates had a stronger affinity for the intricacies of the bond than those born outside of a soul link. 

The doctors would look him over, ask him questions, ask his brother questions, his parents. Before concluding that they didn't have enough information. He would have to grow up and wait until he was 18 to be able to fully reach his soulmate. 

The night of his 18th birthday his parents sat with him on the couch as he waited. Waited for the mark on his wrist to turn white, establishing that there was another person on the other end; they waited for him to be able to reach his phantom hand threw the soul link to connect with his soulmate. Feel her emotions, maybe see through her eyes. Their link had to be strong for him to be able to reach for it at the young age of 10. 

So his family sat and waited, and then it happened. His mark burned for a moment and then it was like a curtain was pulled back and he could finally move forward. He had reached forward with all he had to find her. He had been met with a chill that he could feel in his soul. Withdrawing had been his first instinct, so he tried again a minute later. Still the chill, but he moved forward anyway, before the chill became a cold that he couldn't no longer withdraw from. 

His parents Patrick and Martha gave him time, his brother even let off with his stunts for the following week or so; time to try to reach her again and again before he finally gave up. The chill that the experience left him with stayed. It stayed with him as he grew older, it stayed as his parents died, it stayed with his as he snuck off to Goodneighbor for chems; which no matter how he tried wouldn't remove the chill in his bones, it stayed with him as he watched his brother ostracized the Ghouls of Diamond City, it stayed with him as he brother smiled like the devil looking down at the people of Diamond city. It stayed when he left, when he brought food to those abandoned by Diamond City, it stayed when he moved to Goodneighbor, bringing refugees with him, it stayed while he watched Vic’s appalling behavior, it stayed when he remade himself into Hancock, it stayed when he hung Vic from the statehouse balcony. 

It was only when he finally became a Ghoul did the chill lessen. It lessened enough that he no longer shivered. It lingered, the cold sweeping feeling that came from his soulmate. Sure as he went on as the new him he would reach out. Graze the fingertips of his phantom soul against the back of her hand, then the cold would come and he would retreat. 

He wasn't the kind of Ghoul that would ever give up, he reached out every now and then. Tried to do it when he was riding a nice high that would make the cold just a little less all consuming. 

His duties as mayor and chem kingpin filled the time more than enough to make the feeling move to the back of his mind. He filled his bed, his office, his bar, his town with people who needed something from him. Protection, booze, chems, sex, it didn't matter, he lived his life like a hoodlum, if not more than willing to fill the emptiness he felt cursed by. 

___________________________________________________________________ 

The day had been normal so far. He had had to deal with Bobbi No Nose fucking around in town, but he was confident she wasn't going to be making any bold moves anytime soon. 

He had been relaxing, rolling mentats around his mouth with his tongue when he figured now was a good time as any to push against his soul link. He didn't do it as often as he had when he was younger. At least that's what he told Fahrenheit whenever she asked. He let himself finish the mentat before putting a cigarette in his mouth and lighting it. It was the small comforts. 

In reality, he checked his link every Sunday. ‘Like going to church’ Daisy would say. He would also push against it whenever he was high as a kite on the lovely mix of med-x, mentats and jet. The mix made him sentimental. 

It was always the same thing. It was like he reached out and touched a block of ice, it was shaped like a person, a woman, but it was as cold and still as a block of ice. 

But today was not like that. 

When he reached through the link to caress the back of his soulmate's hand; as far as he had ever gotten before the cold became too much, he was surprised to find that it wasn't cold. And as he reached up with his phantom hand, she pulled away. 

A gasp, small and the kind that gives you thoughts echoed in his head. But by the time he had realized that there had been a response he had been thrown out of the soul link. In a panic he stood, the cigarette falling from his open mouth onto the table. 

What the fuck just happened?


	3. Chapter 3.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aaliyah navigates the vault as she prepares herself for her fight to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey sorry this took so long to post, I had a whole bunch of stuff happen and add to my already crazy month. But here it is! Enjoy!

”Critical failure in cryogenics array. All Vault residents must vacate immediately.” 

If she were honest to herself, she would have preferred the feeling of nothingness. She didn't have to confront her feelings, the fact that her soulmate was dead, the fact that her son was gone; stolen by a man that was going to regret having taken what was hers away. 

Falling from her pod had been painful for two reasons. 

One, she now had to face reality. She was undeniably awake now, if the pain she felt was any indication of it. 

Two, her soulmate was dead. She didn't know how it was supposed to feel. Nate had been the one that took the classes provided by the army. Just in case she passed while serving her country; She felt empty, like, like a piece of her was missing. Which she guessed a piece of her was missing. 

Other parts of her felt different too, but she didn't have the strength to explore anymore of it in the moment. 

”Critical failure in cryogenics array. All Vault residents must vacate immediately.” 

Picking herself up off the ground she looked desperately at Nate in his pod. She had hoped he would look peaceful. Some people looked peaceful when they died you know? But this was not the case for her Nate. Her sweet, caring husband. 

”Come on, there has to be a release!” 

Moving to the terminal she wiped away the frost from the screen and clicked through to the opening function as fast as she could. Moving to the front of the pod while it opened she stood there, tears dripping down to her chin. The muscles in her lips quivering, from the cold or the emotional torment she wasn't sure. She wanted to give herself this moment, this moment before she had to push it all aside so she could complete the mission she was given by her rage and desperation. A mission she would be happy to complete. 

”Come on, come on, come on. Oh god…” 

”Critical failure in cryogenics array. All Vault residents must vacate immediately.” 

Leaning forward she reached out a hand, hesitating slightly before putting her hand on his leg. God she wished he had felt cold. But he didn't! He felt just like her, like a block of ice. Had she been on ice for too long? Dropping to her knees she let her emotions take over. 

She cried, the kind of ugly cry that made your throat hurt because you can’t breath fast enough and you feel like you're choking. 

After a while Aaliyah finally had to stand.To face the music. 

Lip quivering, she slowly took Nate’s wedding ring off. Something to keep him with her always. 

”I’ll find who did this and get Shaun back. I promise.” 

Pulling herself away from him was difficult, but she didn't doubt that the road ahead of would be hard. And so she walked away from the pods that held her neighbors, she could not truly call any of them friends, but they did not deserve their fates. And why would Vault Tec do this to them? She felt like an experiment. 

As she walked out of the tomb; she wanted to call out, see if maybe others were alive, but the only sounds in the vault was the computer's critical failure warning and any sounds that she made. Instead she let herself listen to her teeth chatter as she walked towards her way out. She couldn’t really recall all of the moments that had led her and Nate to be in the pods in the first place. 

She could remember the day, the warm weather, her and Nate playing with Shaun briefly before every moment became dire. She had been pumped so full of adrenaline that she had not been paying proper attention to the vault when she came in. 

”Critical failure in cryogenics array. All Vault residents must vacate immediately.” 

The door that she came in, it was straight in front of the door, with the machines that hissed when you walked through. She didn't remember turning, the one she remembered walking through was straight ahead. Stumbling to the door felt like it thawed her somewhat. She felt hope that she may not have to feel this chill for much longer. But when she tried the door it was not operational. 

“Malfunction in emergency exit door override. Please contact your Vault-Tec maintenance representative for service”. 

Aaliyah wasn’t lying when she thought she might scream. She was cold, the ice from the pods had seeped into other rooms, rusting the metal on the walls and giving the vault the distinct feeling of a grave. She wanted to leave. 

Hugging herself with her arms she went instead through the door to her right, down some stairs. Ahead of her was a large window that showed the reactors. Framed by the glass, a giant cockroach rested lazily on the other side of the glass. Seeing it gave her pause. Had they always been that big? She was used to dealing with unideal situations. But giant cockroaches? Grabbing the security baton, covered in a layer of dust she may add; that lay on the containers in front of the glass Aaliyah gave the cockroach a hard stare. It was disgusting and could probably take a chunk out of her if she got bit. She was not planning on getting bit however. 

Proceeding forward she turned into an office on her right, briefly searching it because of its upheavaled state. She found a stimpak but nothing else noteworthy. 

Continuing forward she traversed the rusted, cold hallways alone before coming upon one of the giant cockroaches in its ugly glory. 

When she came into the room she had already been brandishing the security baton she had found, she felt unsafe in this changed environment. It wasn't how she left it after all. 

Killing the cockroach had taken a single swing of the baton. She had been tempted to wipe off the gore, but instead let it drip. If the dirty environment she found herself in was this consistent? She needed to get into a different head space. She needed to push aside the peaceful housewife she had been playing at with Nate, she needed to get back into the battlefield mentality. 

Closing her eyes Aaliyah took a deep breath, held it for a moment before breathing out. Opening her eyes again she ignored the messroom straight ahead. It was time to get out of this hellhole. 

The cockroaches in the reactor room varied more in size than she was expecting. Upon killing all ahead of her, she took a moment to fully look one over. She had no idea what was ahead of her so she wanted to make sure she was as prepared as she could be. The next thing she needed to focus on was the skeletons. 

”What happened here? Where is everyone?” 

The sound of her voice sounded wrong, it echoed slightly off of the metal walls, reminding her that her voice had only been used for grief since her awakening. 

Shaking her head she stole herself before pushing forward. The skeletons were a curious matter. It only takes about three weeks for the human body to decompose, but the vault was not a dry place. The ice and the chill it brought with it had seeped into the other rooms of the vault. The room she stood in now, a good hundred or so feet away, was still as cold as when she had dropped out of her pod. There were terminals she could look at, but she also didn't want to go down that road at all. She didn't want to know what these sick people did with the people of Sanctuary Hills. 

Proceeding ahead Aaliyah eventually found herself in the Overseers office. The hallway leading to the office had more giant roaches, but she killed those as easily as the first batch. She found more stimpaks, and in the gun locker she found a 10mm pistol with ammo. 

With the use of strong willpower she opened the evacuation tunnel, sure she was curious about what the terminal said, but she had built a wall around her emotions as she traversed the vault, she didn't want to delve into her emotions until she felt safe. And this vault was certainly not that for her. 

The door opened and before her was another fucking hallway. The vault didn't seem to be that large, but it winded around like a snake. 

Stalking forward, more determined than before she crushed the roaches with the back of her gun. She wanted to conserve ammo, she had no idea what outside would look like. The last time she had seen any kind of greenery it was silhouetted by the flash from the bombs falling. Kicking the cockroaches also seemed just as effective. 

Going through two more doors, one marked as an exit zone she finally appeared at the exit. More skeletons, and more cockroaches greeted her as she pushed onwards. 

These skeletons were clustered around the entrance of the vault like they had been attempting to escape themselves. She couldn't blame them. Taking the pip-boy from the skeleton on the platform she stared blankly down at it as she latched it onto her wrist. 

The rest she wanted to say she had focused on, or could recount but not really. The loud alarms that signalled the vault was being opened made her mind want to shut off. 

Waiting at the end of the platform she walked forward to the elevator. She waited as it descended back down into the earth, setting her shoulders back, she stepped on to the platform. 

"Enjoy your return to the surface." 

Yeah right.


	4. Not a chapter, so sorry

Hello everyone im really sorry that i havent posted a new chapter in a little while. I had a setback with my recovery and have not been able to get out exactly what I wanted for my chapters. 

I am trying my hardest to write the next chapters, so thank you all so much for your patience.

I love you all and welcome to the New Year ❤


End file.
